Saddam's Crimes

Michael J. Totten has produced an excellent piece on his stay in Suleimaniya. It's a must read- particularly for any people who consider the Abu Ghraib scandal on a par with what went on while Saddam Hussein was still in power.

The hardest thing to see was the cell used to hold children before they were murdered. My translator Alan read some of the messages carved into the wall.

“I was ten years old. But they changed my age to 18 for execution.”

“Dear Mom and Dad. I am going to be executed by the Baath. I will not see you again.”

10,725 people were killed in this one building alone. All died during torture. Formal execution actually took place in Abu Ghraib.

And then there's this, from commenter Martin Kunert who made the documentary "Voices of Iraq"-

"Two years ago, I produced the documentary film VOICES OF IRAQ, where we sent 150 DV cameras across Iraq and allowed Iraqis to film their own lives. The cameras got into the prison you visted and others. I viewed several hours of video and testimony detailing the horrors of Saddam's torture. One woman recalled tearfully how her newborn baby was fed to dogs infront of her eyes. Another video shows floors stained with blood and fat that liquified off torture victoms and poured onto the tiles below them."